Well, here I am, about to hit 50, and still, some would say foolishly, pursuing rap like I just discovered it yesterday.
It's true to say that I do feel reinvigorated in some ways.
A brush with your own mortality, a revelation about your neuro status and a complete change of scenery, immersing ones self in a totally different culture will do that to you I guess.
I have a passion for wordplay, or as Seek would call it, "the puzzle", and i relate life's happenstances, kismet and events from the universal playbook to the same mechanics taking place during the structuring of a verse. I believe in things happening for a reason, and that we have less control over our artistic expression than we think, especially when it's an honest expression of ones self, ironically. So, the series of twist and turns that saw me and Hip Hop travelling towards our 50th have a cosmic pattern that i am only just beginning to scratch the surface of comprehension of.
But trying to make sense of it through my art is what has been central to my existence for sometime, only now it seems so much more vital than before.
That's why I see the puzzle of lyricism as a microcosm for the way all things seem to organically relate to each other. In verse writing, and in the universe, everything is connected if you look hard enough.
I guess that is a good starting point to explain the title of this project.
Sometimes i feel like I'm just travelling in the slipstream of destiny.
The title is also a reference to my next LP that is sitting on the table waiting to drop not long after this release.
The forthcoming album's title is "Ego Slippin", a declaration of my lessening ego. We are humans, we all have Egos, and we unleash them to varying degrees. But lately I've found the hulkified level of human ego to be a ridiculous thing that looks more and more like a parody of ourselves by the minute.
In this sense, The tracks on Slipstreams are part of that growing realisation. An opportunity to vent some bragadocious bars peppered with critical thought, slipping in and out of a stream of consciousness that plays out like pieces of myself fun fighting with each other over bragging rights.
I body the beat in The Anatomy, and give my ego a shot in the arm on Booster Shot, but I am rubbish at writing straight up brag shit. My brain automatically engages in philosophical enquiry as soon as the beat grabs me, so even my most ego inflated bars end up twisting their way down a cognitive rabbit hole.
Don't let that put you off though.
Fall in line to my slipstream for a little while and I'll take you part of the way to where you're going.
UK label Def Pressé taps legendary New York hip-hop producer Blockhead for the fifth installment of their KPM Crate Diggers series. Bandcamp New & Notable May 5, 2024